December 24/99 5:30 am - Naya Troubles Affect Cycling

Posted by Editor on 12/24/99

Water Company Woes Affect Cyclists

If you follow the business news, you may have seen that Naya, a bottle water company based in Mirabel, Quebec has recently suffered a severe financial reversal. The company has filed for temporary protection from creditors while it tries to sort out its problems. The problems began when Coca-Cola decided not to continue acting as Nayaâ€šs distributor in the United States. The loss of such a powerful distributor basically killed Nayaâ€šs sales in the huge U.S. market (the fight for shelf space in stores is very fierce, and without Coca-Colaâ€šs support, Naya lost a lot of space). Naya is currently an estimated $112 million in debt.

So how does this affect cycling (and a bunch of other sports), you might ask? Well, remember all those bottles of Naya water, Naya sponsored teams and athletes (including Lance Armstrong)... Guess who is likely to be first on the chopping block when it comes to cost-cutting measures? Uh-huh.